Working for a small family business that has a komatsu mini excavator and a Komatsu pc160. A lot of what they do is demolition and excavation. They are talking about another peice of equipment probably a dozer. My question is would it be better to have a crawler loader for moving material faster or have a dozer to grade better?
That is a good question. It really depends on the type of material you work in and how good your operators are. If you work in clay, a good track loader operator can grade just as well as a dozer. It is a little harder in sand but still doable. A dozer will not be a lot of help on demo work. What size machine are you looking at? I am sure CM will chime in on this one, he has a 953. I think we are the only contractor around this area that has a track loader because of the sand we have along the coast. Chris
Mitch, Tried to reply to your PM but your box is full. Chris
We are working in some sticky stuff. Most material is old barns (wood), soil is heavy and full of clay, vegetation in mostly minimal but where we get into it it is large cottonwoods and heavy brush as well as very thick sod.
Sure will. Shake n Brake from what type of work you describe I would say a track loader. Demolition, old barns, vegetation - track loader. A loader is a swiss army knife of sorts and can do a lot of different tasks from loading trucks to demo'ing houses and other small buildings. I have demo'd a few buildings with only my track loader just like the old timers did before trackhoes came along. Also have a D5G and it has it's place too. I wouldn't get rid of either my D5 or 953. A loader will use more fuel than a small dozer and has more expensive moving parts but you can't load a truck with a dozer, well I guess anything is possible. A loader will augment a track hoe better than a dozer in what you describe, if you could only pick one. A track loader would allow you to do two jobs/projects at once the loader on one job and the trackhoe on the other.
CM nailed it, a trackloader is a swiss army knife. With what you are describing, you should do just fine with a trackloader. Any idea what size machine either dozer or trackloader you might be looking at? For clearing, you can't beat a trackloader and excavator working together. Chris
Well I would say that a Cat 953 or 963 would be the right size trackloader where I would be looking at a JD 650 size dozer. I really like the stats on the 973 crawler loaders and they are priced fairly close to the smaller cats from what I see but that is a lot of machine. They look like they ought to be a beast with a clearing rake.
The 973's are a beast of their own. There is a reason why they are priced similar to '53's and 63's. Size and weight are their downfalls outside of specialty applications. It's one thing to get a 953 stuck but a whole 'nuther ball game with a 973. I can put my 953 on my tag behind a dump truck and take off to the job. A 963 or 973 will require a lowboy. I don't know what you have to move your equipment with but that's something to keep in mind.
Right now we are running a semi with a beaver tail tag-along to keep weight down so we can haul the digger during road restriction time. Later there may be a low bed in the future. Getting stuck with large crawlers is never good. Pulled out a JD 750 long track last summer burried up to the cab. That was a chore. This forum should have a spot for stuck/broken machinery. If it did i'd post up some pictures. What is the weight for the 953,963, 973?
This is sort of a side note to the thread, but I find it interesting that the use of track loaders is somewhat of a regional preference. Perhaps it has to do more with they type of work that is commonly done, but track loaders in our neck of the woods are rather rare, especially since track hoes have become so popular in the last 30 years. I have no point to make here, just an observation!
The mother of all equipment stuck threads - HeavyEquipmentForums
Just a suggestion. If you're not sure which to buy, maybe you could rent the machines as needed, and turn them back in when the job is over. So you don't have to pay for the machine forever, if you only need it for a specific job. Also it's a way to try out machines before you buy them. Hope this helps.
The weights on the 953 is 34k 963 is almost 45k and the 973 is just over 61k. That is a big difference. We very rarely get our 963 stuck. Along the coast we have sand but if you go inland, you get into to some nasty clay. The job we are on now is fairly decent clay and I used the 963 to clear it. There were pines that we 33 inches on the butt and the stumps were as big as a single axle dump truck when they still had the dirt on them. I had to dig around a few of them pretty good to get them down. I would not really want to haul a 963 around on a tag along. Chris
Just curious. Do they make a track loader with a 4 in 1 bucket like on a backhoe?
Yes they make 4 in 1 buckets for track loaders.
I will most likely lobby hard for renting a track loader as odds are I will be running it be it dozer or loader. I will look into getting a 4 in 1 bucket as well so long or odd shaped material can be moved more easily. I have personally not used a 4 in 1 bucket but have run smaller dozers and crawler loaders. I have a feeling I will be overruled and we will be getting a Komatsu dozer (sigh).
Check with your local Cat Rental store they might have a 953D to rent, our local store has a few.
I would try for a D3 or D4 to put with the 160 that is a heck of a team, you can dig ,load (with a thumb),demo and make it look good to boot.
I would choose a 953 size trackloader any day over the dozer for what he described the use would be for.
Now you guys got me thinkng, do they still make track loaders ? I looked at machinery trader and found that they were mostly all cat and 2011 or older guess they do just wondering .
Yeah Cat makes a 953,963,973 in the D series. Thompson Tractor had a new 953D on their yard last time I was in Tarrant and the Alabaster rental store has fairly new 953D as well. The reason you don't see many newer ones for sale is due to the housing slump, as track loaders were prevalent basement cutters in many areas. During the boom, there were over 200 + track loaders working just in Shelby County per my Cat PSR.
I think Track loader is the next machine for you. A dozer by it self can do a lot of work if you can balance the material on site. A track loader can balance on site and load it to go off site. a Cat 953 is a nice size to own, you can rent bigger machines for bigger work and give them back when your done.